KARACHI: Police on Thursday claimed to have arrested an activist of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-London on charges of killing a superintendent of police and his (the SP’s) doctor friend in a Korangi area around eight years ago.

“The police have arrested a nominated suspect in the murder of SP Shah Mohammed Shah,” said DIG East Amir Farooqui.

The held suspect, Zulfiqar alias Bhutta, belonging to the MQM-L had established a “reign of terror” in Korangi when he was ‘in-charge’ of a team of hitmen linked to Korangi’s sector in-charge Raees Mama.

The slain police officer was a close relative of Sindh CM Syed Murad Ali Shah

The police said slain SP Shah had played a key role during the Karachi operation of the 1990s.

The slain SP was nominated in a second FIR registered at the Gulberg police station in connection with the killing of MQM leader Altaf Hussain’s brother Nasir Husain and his nephew Arif Hussain when he was the area SHO.

“The held suspect under instructions of Raees Mama carried out an attack on a clinic in a Korangi area on May 28, 2012 and gunned down SP Shah Mohammed Shah and his doctor friend Dilshad,” added the DIG.

Suspect Bhutta was nominated in the murder case registered on terror charges. Raees Mama had already been arrested in the same case, said the officer.

Police sources told Dawn that the slain SP was a close relative of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah.

The sources said that the police officer was targeted as the MQM chief, Altaf Hussain, believed that the slain SP had “a role in the killing of his brother and nephew”.

Altaf Husain’s brother and nephew were killed after the murder of Ihsan Shah, brother of the then chief minister, Abdullah Shah, and uncle of the present chief minister, Murad Shah, said the sources.

Abdullah Shah was the chief minister of Sindh at the time when the Karachi operation was launched in the 1990s.

Meanwhile, a police statement said that apart from killing the SP and his doctor friend, the held suspect, Zulfiqar Bhutta, was also involved in the killings of several workers of the MQM-Haqiqi. Furthermore, in 2014, he had carried out an armed attack on the vehicle of the then DC Korangi as the officer had removed the picture of Altaf Hussain from his office. In that armed attack, the DC’s security guard was wounded.

He was also involved in the killing of deputy town officer of Korangi Amir Zai in 2013. He was gunned down outside his home in Korangi-2.

The held suspect with other accomplices carried out several armed attacks in MQM-H dominated area of Rahimabad in which several persons were killed and wounded.

Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2019